Category Archives: Elementary Schools

2015 holiday greeting card artwork winners announced

The winners of HISD’s annual 2015 Holiday Greeting Card competition were announced on Nov. 3, and one was a repeat from last year.

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Gloria Xie, who won in the middle school category in 2014, also claimed that honor this year as a seventh-grader at Pershing Middle School. “I would just like to say thank you to my principal, Ms. (Kim) Heckman, and my teacher, Ms. Perugini, and my parents,” she said.

Each year, the district sends out hundreds of holiday greeting cards to principals, board members, legislators, local leaders, parents groups, and community partners. Since 2003, these cards have featured the artwork of HISD students.

The other students whose artwork was selected for 2015 were: Continue reading →

‘Digital compass’ helps Garden Oaks students navigate cyberspace

Garden Oaks Montessori students are learning how to stay safe online, thanks to a “digital compass” and other exercises in how to navigate cyberspace.

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Students learned about educational tools and resources to help them make good decisions online during a cyber safety pep rally held Oct. 27. They played a “digital compass” game, answered Internet security and privacy questions, and shared their thoughts about cyber bullying. Continue reading →

Power of social media helps the Rusk School harness the power of the sun

Students at HISD’s Rusk School will soon be growing organic food for local charities, after the campus completed construction on a geodesic-dome-shaped, solar-powered greenhouse funded by a $25,000 grant from the State Farm Youth Advisory Board.

The school won the grant in 2012 through the organization’s “Cause An Effect” program (later re-named “Neighborhood Assist”), an online contest that generates votes for local causes through social media. A student panel chose 100 finalists from a field of 3,000 entries, and voters on State Farm’s Facebook page chose the top 40 winners. Continue reading →

Nutrition Services adds more fresh fruits and vegetables to menu

DeChaumes Elementary School students enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables at lunch.

USDA’s MyPlate recommends children eat three and a half cups of fruits and vegetables daily, and the fresher they are, the more nutrients they contain. HISD Nutrition Services is offering healthier choices for students by adding more fresh fruits and vegetables to school menus.

“We want to offer more varieties of fresh fruits and vegetables to get the students excited about eating healthy foods at school,” said HISD Dietitian Amanda Oceguera. “It was rewarding to see the students’ positive reactions to our Texas-grown watermelon, and we plan to continue offering more items like it.”

Continue reading →

HISD, Houston Symphony, BBVA Compass announce new music program at Crespo ES

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Houston Independent School District, Houston Symphony and BBVA Compass announced Friday a joint partnership that will integrate the Houston Symphony and orchestral music into the lives of students in grades 3-5 at Crespo Elementary School in southeast Houston.

The Houston Symphony School Residency at Crespo Elementary presented by BBVA Compass, in its pilot phase during the 2015-16 school year, will be structured around lessons, instrument demonstrations and performances. Continue reading →

Academic Parent Teacher Teams (APTT) set the stage for student success

This year, in nearly 200 classrooms at nine HISD elementary schools, parents are experiencing a new kind of parent-teacher conference that gives them the tools both to expand their children’s learning and to monitor their progress.

Schools in their second or third years of implementing the Academy Parent-Teacher Teams (APTT) program are continuing to perfect and expand the new model of meetings to empower parents to help their children learn outside of school.

Eliot, Gallegos, Kennedy, Mitchell, Piney Point, Shadowbriar, and Tijerina elementary schools, as well as Fonwood Early Childhood Center and the Wharton Dual Language Academy, all recently completed their first round of fall APTT meetings.

The model replaces traditional parent-teacher conferences with three 75-minute group meetings involving all parents in the class, and one 30-minute individual session with the student, teacher, and parents. During group meetings, teachers share student performance data and expectations for the class, review skills, and model hands-on activities parents can do at home to help their children master skills. Parents practice the activities at home with their kids over a 60-day period until their next meeting, when they can again review the data and see how their child has progressed. Continue reading →

Free dyslexia screenings available Nov. 7

HISD’s Office of Special Education Services will offer free dyslexia screenings at a Family Learning Academy event at Burbank Middle School (315 Berry Road, 77022), on Nov. 7, from 9 a.m. to noon.

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition, and poor spelling and decoding abilities. Continue reading →

HISD schools participate in attempt to set reading world record

Ninety-two HISD schools participated in Read Across the Globe on Oct. 19, an attempt to set a Guinness World Record for the largest number of children being read to in a 24-hour period. The goal was to read the same book, “Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table” by Jacqueline Briggs Martin, to 300,000 children simultaneously.

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Hundreds of generous Houstonians, including former First Lady Barbara Bush, volunteered to be a classroom reader, timekeeper, or witness of the event. Many HISD schools tweeted photos during the event, and you can see a collection of those at the end of this article. Continue reading →

HISD Board of Education to vote on proposed attendance boundary changes

On Thursday, the HISD Board of Education will vote on a plan to adjust attendance boundaries at 10 elementary schools for the 2016-2017 school year to address classroom overcrowding.

The proposal affects these elementary campuses: Bastian, Hartsfield, Highland Heights, Kelso, Smith, Stevens, Wainwright, Young, Frost, and Law.

Community meetings regarding the proposals took place in October.

Complete details, including maps and frequently asked questions, can be found here.

Mark White ES community meeting offers update on construction, introduction to new principal

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Community meeting attendees for the new Mark White Elementary School on Thursday heard an important update on the construction phase of the project and received a formal introduction to the newly hired principal for the relief campus.

Lisa Hernandez, former assistant principal at The School at St. George Place, will lead the campus when the school opens in August 2016.

“We’re going to be looking at building a strong community for the school and really setting the mission for the school,” Hernandez said. “Our job as educators is to prepare students for the 21^st century, and that is something I’m really looking forward to building at Mark White.”